Download science wow #1 - Hunter Supreme

SCIENCE WOW #1 Newton and his Laws
Science Area: Physical Science
Concept: The student will learn About Isaac Newton and his work. About Newton's laws
of motion. The meaning of the first and third laws.
Materials: Boards
(sketch/drawing)
Procedures: Demosrtation of break boards. (1) Force, which was the cause of motion
(2) Mass, the amount of matter, which resisted motion. 1 2 3
SCIENCE WOW #2 Force
Science Area: Physical Science
Concept: Students will understand the following:
1. A force is an agency or influence that, if applied to a free body, results in an
acceleration of the body.
2. Gravity is such a force.
3. As the force of gravity on a body increases, the acceleration of the body increases.
4. Air resistance and friction act as counterforces to gravity.
Materials:
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(Trumper & Gelbman, 2002)
(Forces. Physical Science in Action[TM]. Schlessinger Science Library. [Videotape], 2000)
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(Watson, 2000)
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Distribute the following materials to each group of students:
• 30-inch length of string
• Small, freely rolling toy car
• Paper clip opened to serve as a hook
• A variety of weights that can be attached to the paper-clip hook
• Stop watch
(sketch/drawing)
Procedures:
1. Let students know that they will be performing an experiment that will confirm their
predictions about the effect of gravity on the motion of a body.
2. Divide the class into small groups, distributing the necessary materials to each group.
3. Instruct students to set up their experiment by tying one end of the string onto the toy car and
the other end to the paper-clip hook.
4. Have students place their cars on a flat table or desktop and hang the paper-clip hook over the
edge of the table.
5. Calling attention to the variety of weights each group has been given, ask students to predict
how the cars will move if different weights are hung from the paper-clip hook and allowed to
fall to the floor. Possible predictions might include: (1) as the weight increases, the car will
move with increasingly higher constant speeds toward the edge of the table; (2) different
weights will have no effect on how the car moves; (3) as the weight increases, the car will
move toward the edge of the table with greater and greater acceleration. (Correct prediction:
the car will move with greater acceleration as the weight increases.)
6. After students have made their predictions, ask them to support them by creating illustrated
diagrams using arrows and labels to indicate the forces and counterforces acting on the car.
7. Once the charts are complete, have students conduct experiments using the cars, weights, and
stopwatch to confirm or refute their predictions. Students should record the results of their
experiments
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SCIENCE WOW #3 Electrostatic Force: Making Salt and Pepper Dance
Science Area: Physical Science
Concept: Students will observe, infer, predict, experiment, formulate hypotheses, and
identify and control variables.
Materials:
Balloon
Wool cloth
Salt and pepper
(sketch/drawing)
Procedures: Inflate the balloon and tie the end.
Sprinkle a small amount of salt and pepper on a sheet of paper or on your desk top.
Rub the balloon with the cloth.
Bring the balloon within about an inch or two (2-5 cm) of the salt and pepper.
Observe for a minute or two. You will need to caution your students to watch very
carefully. Otherwise they will probably not notice that the same grains of salt and pepper
are attracted to the balloon, repelled, and then attracted again over and over.
Explain what is happening and why:
In this activity you will see the salt and pepper do a "dance" because of the following
principles. The balloon, being rubbed with wool, takes on a negative charge. When it is
held near the salt and pepper, the salt and pepper become charged positively by induction
and will leap and cling to the balloon. As the salt and pepper remain in contact with the
balloon, some of the negative charge (electrons) will drain off the balloon and onto the
salt and pepper. The salt and pepper now have a negative charge – the same as the
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(Oh, Im, & Pak, 2000)
(Trumper & Gelbman, 2002)
6
(All about Simple Machines. Physical Science for Children[TM]. Schlessinger Science Library.
[Videotape], 2000)
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3
balloon – and will leap from the balloon. Notice that the salt and pepper do not simply
fall, but rather they appear to be thrown from the balloon by some force. The force is the
repelling action of the electrostatic charges for each other. 7 8 9
SCIENCE WOW #4 Magnet Wars
Science Area: Physical Science
Concept: The students will observe the effects of magnets on iron filings.
Materials: For this lesson, you need the activity sheet, a variety of magnets (a big one and
a small one for each war), and about 1 cup of iron filings. If you don't have a vial of iron
filings in your classroom, no problem. Iron filings are easy to find. In most places you
can extract them right from the dirt outside. (How do they get there? That's a good topic
for classroom discussion. Some are bits of construction debris and some are tiny
meteorites -- no kidding!) Send an adventurous student to the playground with a
container and a magnet. They will love sifting their magnet through the dirt for tiny bits
of iron. It takes a few recesses to get a cup. Some kids love to put water in the container
to rinse off the stuff; be sure they collect the wet iron filings with the magnet before
pouring it down the drain.
ACTIVITY SHEET
Name: _________
Date: _________
Magnet Wars
The magnetosphere of Jupiter traps charged particles from the solar wind and from Io's
volcanos. You can get an idea of what this is like with a magnet war. For a good war you
need one big magnet, one small magnet, 1 cup of iron filings, a piece of paper and a
friend. You also need a serious, scientific attitude because if you get too silly this will
make a mess that you don't want to clean up.
To War!
Dump the iron filings (metallic dust) on the paper and spread them out with a pencil.
Have your friend face the other way. Lay out the two magnets behind your friend but not
on the paper. With his back turned, have him choose a magnet. She/he must use the
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(All about Simple Machines. Physical Science for Children[TM]. Schlessinger Science Library.
[Videotape], 2000)
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(King & Kennett, 2002)
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(Roche, 2002)
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magnet that is first touched. Now touch your magnets to your ears. Count to three, on 'go'
both of you start gathering as much of the iron as you can. Who won? Play it three times.
Record your results. Do you notice a pattern?
Who had the big
magnet?
Who had the little
magnet?
Who won?
Extra Brain Fuel:
Jupiter's magnetic field looks a lot like the magnetic field of a common bar magnet (a
rectanglar magnet). If you have a bar magnet, put it under a piece of paper and sprinkle
iron filings on top. The iron filings will outline the shape of the magnetic force field. This
is what Jupiter's magnetic force field would look like if you could see it.
(sketch/drawing)
Procedures: 1. Assemble your materials.
2. Show the students the iron filings. Point out the messy nature of the iron filings. Also,
if they get vacuumed up they are lost.
3. Distribute the activity sheets. This is exciting, be prepared. Read through the activity
sheets and discuss the chart.
4. Either have pairs of students demonstrate the wars serially or you can have wars
happening around the room concurrently.
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5. Have students fill the
could even have them
results.
chart with their data. You
make a graph. Discuss the
6. In the "Extra Brain Fuel" section, students will discover what the force field of a
common bar magnet looks like and compare it to Jupiter's. This image (right) shows how
the iron filings will line up and how that shape relates to the magnetic lines of force close
to Jupiter. They are just the same!
Rationale:
This activity will reinforce the magnetosphere concept. Students will notice that the
filings start to move before the big magnet even contacts them. 10 11 12
SCIENCE WOW #5 Learning about Levers
Science Area:Physical Science
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Concept: Students will use observation skills to draw conclusions.
Students will learn the usefulness of levers and the scientific reasoning behind
them.
Materials:
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Short pencil
Thread spool
Tape
Plastic bag
Small stones
Shoe box
Two equal lengths of wood, or two rulers
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(Ivanov, 2000)
(Maloney, O'Kuma, Hieggelke, & Van Heuvelen, 2001)
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(Binnie, 2001)
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(sketch/drawing)
Procedures:
Start with a mini lesson about levers, work, and force. Here is basic information:
Force X Distance = Work (Write this on the board.)
Look at the equation. If force and distance are small, like when you're
turning the pages in a book, then work is small. What would happen if the
distance were zero? No work would be done, no matter how much force
was applied. Pushing against a wall may use a lot of force, but unless the
wall actually moves, no work is being done.
There are a lot of simple machines, like levers, pulleys, and ramps, that
make it so that you don't need to use as much force to do the same amount
of work. How do they do this? Well, they increase the distance over which
the work is done. Have you ever sat on a see-saw with an adult much
heavier than you? You know that there is no way you could have lifted the
adult using just your arms. But by sitting on the very end of the see-saw,
you were able to lift a person much heavier than yourself. The see-saw is a
lever that helps you do the work by spreading the force you apply over a
greater distance.
Instructions for the Project:
1. Put the stones in the plastic bag and lift them.
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2. Observe the amount of force, or effort, you must exert to lift the stones.
3. Tape the two pieces of wood or two rulers to the bottom of the box, one on either
side. Leave the ends sticking out, like wheelbarrow handles.
4. Make a wheel by sticking the pencil through the spool.
5. Tape the pencil crosswise to the ends of the wood.
6. Put the bag of stones in the barrow, close the the wheel. Try lifting it. It's easier to
lift the stones when they are in the wheelbarrow than it was to lift them without
the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow acts as a lever. When you use a lever, your
hands move farther than the distance the load moves. The amount of force you
need to use to lift the stones is less, but it is spread out over the longer distance
created by the lever. 13 14 15
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(Koslowski & Bruner)
(Streitberger, 1978)
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(Pearce, 1999)
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All about Simple Machines. Physical Science for Children[TM]. Schlessinger Science
Library. [Videotape]. (2000). U.S.; Pennsylvania.
Binnie, A. (2001). Using the History of Electricity and Magnetism To Enhance Teaching.
Science and Education, 10(4), 379-389.
Forces. Physical Science in Action[TM]. Schlessinger Science Library. [Videotape].
(2000). U.S.; Pennsylvania.
Ivanov, D. T. (2000). Another Way To Demonstrate Lenz's Law. Physics Teacher, 38(1),
48-49.
King, C., & Kennett, P. (2002). Earth Science Contexts for Teaching Physics. Part 3:
Contexts Relating to the Teaching of Waves, Forces and Motion, Electricity and
Magnetism. Physics Education, 37(6), 478-484.
Koslowski, B., & Bruner, J. S. Learning to Use a Lever. Child Development, 43(3), 790799.
Maloney, D. P., O'Kuma, T. L., Hieggelke, C. J., & Van Heuvelen, A. (2001). Surveying
Students' Conceptual Knowledge of Electricity and Magnetism. American Journal
of Physics, 69(7), S12-S23.
Oh, K., Im, S., & Pak, S. (2000). The Effect of Sports Experiential Learning Activities on
Junior High School Students' Learning about Force and Motion. Journal of the
Korean Association for Research in Science Education, 20(3), 371-383.
Pearce, C. R. (1999). Nurturing Inquiry: Real Science for the Elementary Classroom.
U.S.; New Hampshire.
Roche, J. (2002). Introducing Simple Harmonic Motion. Physics Education, 37(6), 497506.
Streitberger, H. E. (1978). Levers Have We Got Levers. Science and Children, 16(3), 912.
Trumper, R., & Gelbman, M. (2002). Using MBL To Verify Newton's Second Law and
the Impulse-Momentum Relationship with an Arbitrary Changing Force. School
Science Review, 83(305), 135-139.
Watson, T. (2000). Misconceptions and Mistakes. Education in Science(189), 16.
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